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China's Not-Quite-Free Skies

Carriers Set Fares, Sell Stock,
But Beijing Controls Plane Purchases

By

Bruce Stanley Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated June 10, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

BEIJING -- Weaning China's airlines from decades of state support to gird them for global competition, the government now lets them plan their own routes, set their own fares, even sell stock to private investors.

They just can't buy their own airplanes.

This mix of latitude and paternalism is a sign of Beijing's ambivalence toward a...